A variety of cargo transporting means are well-known in the materials handling art. Such cargo transporting means include wheelbarrows, and various other wheeled vehicles which a user may push from behind. In addition, the art is replete with carts and wagons which are designed to be pulled by a user. In general, these hand carts, wheelbarrows, and cargo moving devices are useful in situations where a user wishes to transport small items of cargo over relatively short distances. For example, standard grocery carts are well known and are frequently used by persons who transport bags of groceries short distances from store to home, especially in urban areas. Grocery carts of the type described are generally of segmental wire construction and are routinely specifically sized and configured for the carrying of grocery bags and the like. Such carts may be designed to be collapsible, but few if any are designed to be self-actuating or rapidly converted from a collapsed to operable configuration and vice versa.
Small wheeled transport carts find utility in residential and/or commercial situations where certain items of cargo must be transported from a parked automobile or truck to a home or office some distance away. Such situations often arise in business and condominium or apartment complexes where residents are required to park their automobiles or delivery trucks some distance from the home/office and to transport cargo from the vehicle to the home/office. In order to facilitate the transport of cargo from the vehicle to the home/office, it is desirable to have a versatile, multi-purpose cargo cart which is of lightweight construction, easily collapsible, and which requires minimal storage space within the vehicle. At the same time, however, it is desirable that the cart when disposed in its operational configuration, be capable of transporting substantial amounts and various types of cargo. Accordingly, a substantial need in the art exists for a collapsible, self-actuating transport cart which provides ease in transporting various items of cargo, while being sufficiently lightweight and collapsible to be routinely stored in an automobile trunk or other limited storage space.